Zebra's Industry Solutions can give your business a competitive advantage by connecting people, assets and data to help you make better decisions.
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Zebra's range of mobile computers equip your workforce with the devices they need from handhelds and tablets to wearables and vehicle-mounted computers.
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Zebra's 1D and 2D corded and cordless barcode scanners anticipate any scanning challenge in a variety of environments, whether retail, healthcare, T&L or manufacturing.
Zebra's extensive range of RAIN RFID readers, antennas, and printers give you consistent and accurate tracking.
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Zebra's rugged tablets and 2-in-1 laptops are thin and lightweight, yet rugged to work wherever you do on familiar and easy-to-use Windows or Android OS.
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Zebra's environmental sensors monitor temperature-sensitive products, offering data insights on environmental conditions across industry applications.
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Make the most of every stage of your scanning journey from deployment to optimization. Zebra's barcode scanner software lets you keep devices current and adapt them to your business needs for a stronger ROI across the full lifecycle.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
The Zebra Aurora suite of industrial automation software enables users of all experience levels to solve their track-and-trace and vision inspection needs.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
Zebra DNA is the industry’s broadest suite of enterprise software that delivers an ideal experience for all during the entire lifetime of every Zebra device.
Advance your digital transformation and execute your strategic plans with the help of the right location and tracking technology.
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Find ways you can contact Zebra Technologies’ Support, including Email and Chat, ask a technical question or initiate a Repair Request.
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Build your reputation with Zebra's certification offerings. Zebra offers a variety of options that can help you progress your career path forward.
A barcode is a pattern of dark bars and light spaces grouped together in some pattern to encode data characters. Every barcode type or symbology has it own unique way of encoding data characters. The general format of a barcode symbol consists of a leading margin, start character, data or message character, check character (if any), stop character, and trailing margin. Within this framework, each recognizable symbology uses its own unique format.
Barcodes are divided into two main types: one dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D).
This is a conventional 1D barcode. It has a single row of bars – similar to a picket fence. It is called 'one dimensional' because all the data is encoded in the horizontal width.
This is a two dimensional barcode. Data is encoded in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. As more data is encoded, the size of the barcode can be increased in both the horizontal and vertical directions thus maintaining a manageable shape for easy scanning. This type could have 2000 or more characters embedded in the barcode.
Barcodes can be further divided into symbologies, or barcode languages, which support different types and amounts of data
Keep track of sales and inventory of retail products sold within the US and Canada
12-digit number that identifies the specific product
Required for OTC items
Reduce medication errors
NDC
Linear barcode required on nearly all drug products in the US
Identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed in the US
NDC, serial number, lot number and expiration date
2D data matrix required on the smallest saleable package
Provide information (website nutrition information, etc.) about the product to which it is affixed
Not applicable
Not required by FDA on product labels and labeling
A barcode holds encoded information and a barcode scanner is able to translate this code into numbers and letters which is passed onto a host system.
Barcodes provide rapid, simple, and accurate readings, as well as data transmission for items that need to be identified, tracked or managed. They can be directly printed onto virtually any material and provide a cost-effective and accurate solution for capturing data. There is no single barcode type that has a universal business application. Therefore, a need for different symbologies exist.
When you breakdown a barcode, character sets are combinations of bars and spaces that represent a specific character. X Dimension is the width of the smallest bar or space element in the barcode which is also referred to as mil size (1mil = .001 inch). Quiet ones are the areas just before and after the barcode.
There are different parts of a barcode, at the beginning there is a number which is a system character and specific to an industry. For example, zero is a grocery, and three is pharmaceutical. The price of a product itself is not encoded in the barcode, just the ability to look it up in the host system via the manufacturer and product code.
The barcode will contain a manufacturer code/company prefix which is from six to ten digits in length and is a globally unique prefix assigned to the company. This ensures that a product’s barcode is not confused with another company’s product.
The product code/item reference is a unique code assigned to the product and combines with the manufacturer code to make up the first eleven digits of the barcode.
A check digit is a special formula using those first eleven digits is used to calculate the check digit. This twelveth digit ensures the accuracy of the information in your barcode when it is scanned.
There are three types of scanning technology, Laser Scanner, Linear Imager and Array Imager:
A laser scanner can read 1D printed barcodes but cannot read mobile. It is also unable to scan 2D codes or capture images but it does provide good performance on poor quality codes along with omni-directional scanning. These types of scanners tend to be a good and affordable option for standard, good quality 1D printed barcodes.
A linear imager can read 1D printed and 1D mobile barcodes but cannot scan 2D code nor is omni-directional. It also cannot capture images but does provide excellent performance on poor quality codes and high density codes.
An Array Imager can read 1D and 2D printed and mobile barcodes and most have the ability to capture images. They provide excellent performance on poor quality codes and high density codes along with omni-directional scanning. An Array Imager can also be optimized to support signature capture, OCR, direct part marks and document capture.
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